ZiaZine July 2008 : 39
e band’s greatest hit, “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” wasn’t just a pun on the Captain and Tennille’s No. , “Love Will Keep Us Together,” but a pseudo-breakup letter intended equally for his wife and adulteress. e most telling scene in Control is when, late in the into his own problems during his final years and how his band carries on, hoping he’ll get better. His pres- sures mount after Curtis engages in an extramarital affair with a Belgian journalist. Confusion became his inspiration. Joy Divi- sion titled their final LP Closer, meaning proximity. But in the documentary, cover designer Peter Saville notes ironically that the title could be read aloud with a soft “s”—“closer,” meaning conclusion, and the deeper trag- edy of putting a tomb on the cover. -year-old Curtis hanged himself on May , , exactly two months before the album’s release. Half of his band, his mis- tress and Factory Records founder Tony Wilson did not attend his funeral. Months later, the rest of Joy Division would go on to form New Order. Where these films excel is in telling Joy Division’s story from the inside. To date, the only other theatri- cal take on the band was director Michael Winterbot- tom’s Tony Wilson biopic, Hour Party People. Although it gave insight into the Manchester musical community, it was all from Wilson’s perspective. (Plus, the actor portraying Curtis was , and looked it, when the film came out.) Of the two new releases, Control gives a mostly unbi- ased account of Curtis’s life, filmed in black and white. Samantha Morton, who portrays Curtis widow Debo- rah, gets top billing in the film, underscoring that this is the story of how Ian affected others as much as an exploration into why he ultimately committed suicide. Although it is based on Touching From a Distance, a biog- raphy of Curtis written by Deborah, it also shows Ian’s love and conflicted feelings for Annik Honoré, his lover. movie, Ian (Sam Riley) tells Honoré (Alexandra Maria Lara), “It all feels wrong.” He’s not explicit what “it” is, and in doing so, makes one think about everything with which he, his lovers and his bandmates are coping. ese were adults still overcoming hardships from childhood. eir en- vironment, coupled with their young age, stunted how they could deal with real-world problems like mental ill- ness and adultery. Curtis’s internal battle was that of love versus accountability. In Joy Divi- sion, Morris recalls a time when Curtis phoned him to say he was moving to Holland to open a bookshop, but changed his mind when he remembered they had a gig on Saturday. Curtis could never separate himself from his responsibility. His expectations for himself as a husband and frontman forced him to uphold this mysterious façade when he was trying to figure out his own confusion privately. While his band was full of optimism and naiveté, Ian was full of pessimism and naiveté. e pressures were too much for him.e band knew nothing but to carry on. In Hour Party People, the Wilson character says repeatedly that only people witnessed Christ’s Last Supper, comparing that with the spottily attended Sex Pistols show that inspired Joy Division. e idea is that the fewer the people who witness something amazing, the more legendary it will be is still relevant to both of these films. Although they never played the United States, countless bands cite them as inspiration. And New Order achieved far more success than Joy Division could have expected. What Control and Joy Divi- sion prove together is that despite all his confusion, Ian Curtis and his bandmates may have been f*cked, but their music, to everyone else who’s f*cked, remains a wor- thy escape. control and joy division are available now from Genius Products [ JULY 2008 + monitorTHIS! + 39 ]
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